A personal care article's wrapper can be an important element for consumers when selecting which article brand they want to purchase. Some of the factors that consumers may consider include how quiet or loud the wrappers are when transported and handled, the opening feature, the ability to use an opened wrapper for used article disposal, and the integrity of the wrapper for holding up during storage and transport prior to using the personal care article.
The wrapper opening feature can be especially important because it can directly impact the overall usage experience. One traditional manufacturing process forms wrappers by folding a substrate over on itself and sealing the remaining three edges. An example of the resulting wrapper is shown in FIG. 1, wherein wrapper 10 includes a folded edge 12, a front substrate portion 13, a back substrate portion 14, and three sealed edges 15a, 15b, and 15c. High speed processes for making these types of wrappers generally require some tolerance for matching the front and back of the substrate, leading to some level of material front-to-back offsetting—see, for example, offset 11 in FIG. 1.
A line of weakness (e.g., a perforated line) can be employed as a means to open the sealed wrapper. The line of weakness in some commercially-available products is completely horizontal, such as that shown in FIG. 1 (the line of weakness is element 16 in the figure). The downside of a completely horizontal line of weakness is that it provides the smallest opening for removing a contained article and for reinserting a used article. Thus, angling the line of weakness can create a larger opening. But the front-to-back offsetting, as discussed above, can result in a wrapper where the lines of weakness on the front and back portions (elements 16a and 16b, respectively) do not line up, as is shown in FIG. 2, which can cause an undesirable opening experience for the consumer. Embodiments of the present invention address these two shortcomings.